In vegetables and fruits, God has infused medicinal power to help in overcoming disease. Even these, however, have but a limited potency. The organs of the body are essentially sustained by the energy of God, and the person who employs various methods to increase this energy will have at his command a greater power for healing than is afforded by any medicine or diet.
Paramahansa YoganandaIt takes a long time-many incarnations of right action, good company, help of the guru, self-awakening, wisdom, and meditation-for man to regain his soul consciousness of immortality. To reach this state of Self-realization, each man must practice meditation to transfer his consciousness from the limited body to the unlimited sphere of joy felt in meditation.
Paramahansa YoganandaGroup Meditation is a castle that protects the new spiritual aspirants as well as the veteran meditators. Meditating together increases the degree of Self-realization of each member of the group by the law of invisible vibratory exchange of group magnetism.
Paramahansa YoganandaTo the last day of your life, be positive; try to be cheerful. Even at the very end, don't think, "I am finished." Instead of pitying yourself, you should be thinking, "O ye who are left on this desolate shore still to mourn and deplore, it is I who pity you." Death will not give you any trouble if you have a clear conscience; and if you go with this thought: "Lord, I am in Thy hands."
Paramahansa YoganandaThe deeper the Self-realization of a man, the more he influences the whole universe by his subtle spiritual vibrations, and the less he himself is affected by the phenomenal flux.
Paramahansa YoganandaThe sun shines equally on diamond and charcoal, but the former has developed qualities that enable it to reflect the sunlight brilliantly, while the latter is unable to reflect the sunlight. Emulate the diamond in your dealings with people. Brightly reflect the light of God's love.
Paramahansa YoganandaThe Spirit could not create matter as anything different from Itself, for it had only Itself as the tissue or material with which to build the cosmos.
Paramahansa YoganandaThrough Self-realization man becomes aware of true values as to his place in the divine plan and his relation to the past, present, and future of mankind.
Paramahansa YoganandaThose who are socially inclined will find a new power to help humanity through the lessons of books written by noble and gifted people.
Paramahansa YoganandaIt doesn't matter if a cave has been in darkness for 10,000 years or half an hour, once you light a match it is illuminated.
Paramahansa YoganandaThe man of Self-realization knows a bliss that cannot be compared to anything in this world. His joy is independent of any object or sensory experience. It is an incomparable happiness that cannot be described in words. Such joy is known as sattvik-ananda.
Paramahansa YoganandaThink of Divine Abundance as a mighty, refreshing rain. Whatever receptacle you have at hand will receive it. If you hold up a tin cup, you will receive only that quantity. If you hold up a bowl, that will be filled. What kind of receptacle are you holding up to Divine Abundance?
Paramahansa YoganandaForget the past, for it is gone from your domain! forget the future, for it is beyond your reach! control the present! Live supremely well now! This is the way of the wise.
Paramahansa YoganandaNo action is ever an isolated event. Always, it invites from the universe a reaction that corresponds exactly to the type and the force of energy behind the deed.
Paramahansa YoganandaGod-realization is attained only by great effort on the part of the yogi and by divine grace.
Paramahansa YoganandaThe soul's first adventure is the fight between two ideas: the wish to return to earth in a human form, and the desire to feel the freedom of having no form.
Paramahansa YoganandaLittle stones that are pelted into the lake of consciousness should not throw the whole lake into commotion.
Paramahansa YoganandaWeaken a bad habit by avoiding everything that occasioned it or stimulated it, without concentrating upon it in your zeal to avoid it. Then divert your mind to some good habit and steadily cultivate it until it becomes a dependable part of you.
Paramahansa YoganandaAs a mortal being you are limited, but as a child of God you are unlimited... Focus your attention on God, and you shall have all the power you want, to use in any direction.
Paramahansa YoganandaThe wave is the same as the ocean, though it is not the whole ocean. So each wave of creation is a part of the eternal Ocean of Spirit. The Ocean can exist without the waves, but the waves cannot exist without the Ocean.
Paramahansa YoganandaIf you have a strong mind and plant in it a firm resolve, you can change your destiny.
Paramahansa YoganandaFeel the love of God; then in every person you will see the face of the Father, the light of love which is in all. You will find a magic, living relationship uniting the trees, the sky, the stars, all people, and all living things; and you will feel a oneness with them. This is the code of divine love.
Paramahansa YoganandaBe inwardly ever newly joyous, like the ever-fresh laughing waters of a gurgling brook.
Paramahansa YoganandaIs a diamond less valuable because it is covered with mud? God sees the changeless beauty of our souls. He knows we are not our mistakes.
Paramahansa YoganandaWe do not always see the things that are nearest to us. We pass by riches that lie close at hand and chase after rainbows.
Paramahansa YoganandaGod is the life behind your life, the sight behind your eyes, the taste behind your tongue, and the love behind your love. To realize this to the fullest extent is Self-realization. Without God's power you can do nothing. If you always hold this thought, you cannot go wrong, because you will have purified the temple of your mind and your soul with the vibrations of God.
Paramahansa YoganandaRoam in the world as a lion of self-control; see that the frogs of weakness don’t kick you around.
Paramahansa YoganandaYou do not have to struggle to reach God, but you do have to struggle to tear away the self-created veil that hides him from you
Paramahansa YoganandaSpirit vibrated into matter; hence, both Spirit and matter exist. Matter, however, does not exist in the way that it appears to us. It exists as we see it owing to the delusive force of maya, which makes the indivisible Spirit seem finite and divisible to all appearances. Matter has existence in the same delusive way as does a mirage in the desert.
Paramahansa YoganandaAs you find your soul-reservoir of peace, less and less controversy will be able to afflict your life.
Paramahansa YoganandaI am calmly active, actively calm. I am the prince of peace sitting on a throne of poise, directing the kingdom of my activity.
Paramahansa YoganandaIf you want to be sad, no one in the world can make you happy. But if you make up your mind to be happy, no one and nothing on earth can take that happiness from you.
Paramahansa YoganandaNothing may truly be said to be a miracle except in the profound sense that everything is a miracle.
Paramahansa YoganandaDeath is not a blotting-out of existence, a final escape from life; nor is death the door to immortality. He who has fled his Self in earthly joys will not recapture It amidst the gossamer charms of an astral world. There he merely accumulates finer perceptions and more sensitive responses to the beautiful and the good, which are one. It is on the anvil of this gross earth that struggling man must hammer out the imperishable gold of spiritual identity.
Paramahansa YoganandaExtend the boundaries of the glowing kingdom of your love, gradually including your family, your neighbors, your community, your country, all countries -- all living sentient creatures.
Paramahansa Yogananda